Recap guide

Recap the Atari ST, STE and Falcon

The documented ST-family complaint is an aging power supply, with an STE that needed minutes to warm up fixed by a supply swap. UK recapping services also treat the board and PSU electrolytics of the STF, STE and Falcon as age-limited and sell preventive recaps, but they do not publish a failure pattern.

Open the interactive checklist Tick off each capacitor as you replace it. It saves in your browser.

Check first. A recap is not always the answer here, so look at the guides before you order parts.

Where to start

We did not find a clear list of what fails first on this machine, so we are not guessing. Read the guides below, check the board for leaks, and replace what you can see.

Tips, tales and maybes

Found in write-ups and forum threads. These are other people's reports, not tested by us. Check part references and values against your own board.

Story: STE that needs minutes to warm up (Low confidence). An STE showed a black screen for one to two minutes, then white, and only booted after five to seven minutes, sometimes with four bombs first. A repairer in the thread blamed supply capacitors, and swapping in a known-good PSU fixed it at once. Source
Tip: What leaking SMD caps look like (Medium confidence). A UK recapping shop explains that surface-mount electrolytics leak very slowly over years, and that dull, greenish-tinged solder or caps dropping off the board are signs. Leakage can also hide under the can. Its list of affected machines includes Atari STFM, STE and Falcon. Source
Maybe: Preventive recap incl. PSU (Low confidence). The same shop sells recaps for the 520/1040 STFM and STF, STE (including 4160) and Falcon, covering both mainboard and PSU, tested with a diagnostic cartridge. It stresses it is maintenance for working machines and gives no failure statistics. Source
Maybe: Falcon electrolytics (Low confidence). The Falcon service page replaces every electrolytic on the board and PSU as a preventive step. No symptoms or weak spots are named, so treat this as a reasonable precaution only. Source

Before you start

Boards changed during production. Check your board number against the guides before you order parts.
A mains power supply can hold a dangerous charge. If you are not trained to work on one, have a professional do it.

Guides we used

This page and the interactive bench are built from these. They have the photos and the full detail, so please read them and support their authors.

Atari STe needs to warm up first (Forum) by AtariAge forums. Slow-boot STE traced to the power supply, plus talk of ST PSU capacitor values.
Recapping FAQ (Amiga, Atari, CPC, Spectrum) (Blog) by Retro Passion. Plain explanation of slow SMD capacitor leakage and how to spot it.
Console5 wiki: Atari ST (Wiki) by Console5. A community wiki page for this machine, often with board photos and capacitor lists.

The capacitor list

We have not checked a capacitor list for this machine yet, so none is shown. Follow the guide above for your board, then add the capacitors in the interactive checklist and it builds a shopping list for you.

Skip the sourcing

Ready-made kit: Amazon · eBay
Already recapped: Amazon · eBay

While you are in there

Need the machine itself?: Amazon · eBay
A box of spare capacitors: Amazon · eBay

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These links only search by name. Disclosure

Steps, tools and safety

The steps, the tools in top, middle and budget picks, and the safety list are the same for every machine, so they live on one page: How to recap, step by step.

Values are shown as published in the guides above, and boards changed during production. Check the board in front of you. A recap involves hot tools and, on some machines, dangerous voltages. You do it at your own risk.